1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to images of specimens. In particular, the invention relates to extendable image processing architectures.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image of a biological specimen can be a useful tool in diagnosing a variety of pathological conditions. For instance, images of biological specimens can reveal cells in the process of dividing. Since cancer is characterized by rapidly dividing cells, an image showing an unusually large number of cells dividing can indicate the presence of cancerous cells.
Various image processing operations can be performed on the images or image-derived data. For instance, one operation can be a filter that selectively generates a processed image according to filtering criteria, such as selecting a particular type of specimen within an image. The processed image could then be presented to another processing operation, such as a threshold operation that renders a new processed image of specimen images that exceed a particular defined threshold.
The number and types of image processing operations can change over time, and vary with respect to a desired application. In order to change the image processing operations, or change parameters of particular processing operations, a change is usually required to the image processing software code which requires completely recompiling the code with the changes. Further, conventional systems do not allow parametric changes on the fly during runtime of an application without stopping the application and/or needing to recompile the application code. For the above reasons, there is a need for a system and method for customizing an image processing platform, which supports the ability to be dynamically defined during run time of the image processing operations.